OKADA JOINS REPSOL HONDA’S PEDROSA & HAYDEN
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT PREVIEW
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX, MUGELLO
May 30/31/June 1 2008, round 6 of 18
Repsol Honda RC212V riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden
will be joined by wild card team-mate Tadayuki Okada at the
Italian GP. Venerable HRC test rider Okada contests this one-off
event to give Honda’s pneumatic-valve-spring RC212V
engine its MotoGP debut.
Pedrosa aims to return to his winning ways in Italy after
a tough French GP where he scored his first non-podium finish
in five races. The Spanish star was fourth in France and still
holds joint second place in the World Championship standings.
Last year Pedrosa finished a close second at Mugello. In 2005
he won the 250 GP at the track. Hayden is still chasing his
first top-three finish of the season and will be aiming to
repeat the Mugello podium he achieved in 2006 on his way to
winning that year’s MotoGP crown.
Okada returns to GP duties to give HRC’s new RCV engine
its MotoGP shakedown following an intensive testing programme.
The 41-year-old Japanese rider is well known at Repsol Honda
– he raced for the team from 1996 to 2000, winning a
total of four 500 GPs and finishing second overall to Mick
Doohan in the 1997 500 World Championship. He made his GP
debut on a Honda NSR250 in 1989 and went on to win two 250
GPs and finish second in 1994 250 world series.
Mugello is a hugely challenging circuit for riders and engineers,
with plenty of fast corners, high-speed direction changes
and changes of elevation. The track rises and falls through
a picturesque Tuscan valley and features one of MotoGP’s
longest straights. In fact the straight isn’t quite
straight – the left-hand kink towards the end of the
start-finish sees riders leaning left with the front wheel
in the air at around 320km/h-200mph!
After Mugello the MotoGP action switches to Spain for the
following weekend’s Catalan GP outside Barcelona. This
is MotoGP’s busiest period with six races over eight
weekends.
Dani Pedrosa
“We made some positive forward steps when we tested
at Le Mans after the race, so we will be working hard to get
back up front at Mugello. We have many races over the next
few weeks, so it’s important to get into a good rhythm
and maintain that rhythm. Mugello is a great circuit in an
amazing valley full of people which makes the atmosphere fantastic.
The circuit is one of the most complicated in the championship.
It’s a very high-speed track, so if you want to be fast
you need to concentrate 100 per cent everywhere and take a
lot of risks. You need as much corner speed as possible and
you need a very stable bike that’s also fast through
all the direction changes. You have to find a balance of riding
aggressively and smoothly, using hard tyres because this track
is quite hard on the tyres. It’s about time the track
was resurfaced because it’s getting very bumpy.”
Nicky Hayden
“Mugello will be another hard one, because right now
we’re missing a bit – we know it’s there,
we’ve just got to put it all together. Mugello is awesome,
I’d say it’s one of the best tracks, the best
races we go to all year, the atmosphere is pretty unique.
The track has a little bit of everything. The big front straightaway
looks straight and easy on TV but when you’re in the
saddle it’s got a little kink in it over a rise. The
wheel’s off the ground through there, so you can’t
be leaning too much or sawing on the ‘bars! The track
has got lots of chicanes, though they’re fast chicanes,
not the little Mickey Mouse go-kart chicanes you see at other
tracks, they’re quite quick switchbacks. There’s
also a lot of elevation changes and a few downhill corners
that are tricky so you need a front end with feeling, you’ve
got to trust the front end a lot. The surface is getting well
used, quite bumpy and abrasive.”
Tadayuki Okada
“My last grand prix race was at Phillip Island in 2000,
so it’s more than seven years since I last raced in
GPs! I am really looking forward to Mugello – the long
straight should suit my machine with pneumatic-valve engine.
Finally, it is ready to race now. I scored some good results
on 500s at Mugello. I finished on the podium in 1999 but in
1998 I was battling for the lead with Mick Doohan when I highsided
and broke a wrist. The track is a very technical course with
tricky right and left corners.”
Mugello - CIRCUIT DATA
Length: 5.245 m
Width: 14m
Pole position: Right
Right corners: 9
Left corners: 6
Longest straight: 1141 m
Race: 23 laps = 120.635 km
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